Infinite Possibility
by ErinsPapers
Summary: (Post-The Dark World) Loki schemes across the universe in search of the Infinity Gems and omnipotence. What better way could there be to glorify himself than to wipe out his past - and build a new reality? It doesn't matter that he must do terrible things to get there. It will be worth it. Too bad his quest brings him into contact with Thor's friends. They're a terrible influence.


"Thanos the Eternal," Loki said with a coolness he did not feel as he stepped through the fabric of reality and into the massive throne room of the Titan's star base. "A pleasant evening."

"Is it evening on Asgard?" Thanos replied, his back to Loki. He was looking out the window near his throne at a winking starscape.

Loki looked away. He did not like space. He did not like its emptiness. It put him in mind of … falling. And he did not like to be put in mind of falling. He could already feel his chest constricting.

And he resented it.

"Yes," he said shortly, fisting the edge of his tunic. "And I have something for you."

"I know," Thanos said. He joined his hands behind his back and continued to gaze, and Loki did not press the Titan to turn around. He focused his eyes on the flagstone floor.

The _Serenity II_ was, as always, freezing, and Loki began to shiver as he waited for Thanos to conclude his gazing; the base had been built by and for creatures with fewer bodily weaknesses than Loki.

Only when Loki's already-exhausted limbs began to tire and stiffen, and Loki's pride began to revolt—that Thaos should _continue _to have this effect on him, this cowing—did Loki speak again.

"If you could take a moment-"

"Oh, Loki!" Thanos said, turning. "I forgot you were there."

And he grinned. Loki's stomach went cold.

"Ah, _yes_. I am right here," Loki said. He swallowed. The bulky Titan standing before the window reminded him of Heimdall the Gatekeeper, if Heimdall were about six times his size and fixated on destroying half the actual universe.

Not that any of that, any of Thanos' strengths or plans, mattered to Loki any more. He was about to get his five minutes with the Time Gem. Right now. Within minutes-the past would be obliterated. Falling would be obliterated. The memories of Byyrenll's face, obliterated. Frigga's travesty of a death, obliterated. Defeat after defeat, obliterated.

The disappointed Frigga still harbored when she died: Obliterated.

Maybe "obliterated" wasn't the best choice of word.

… Undone. That was better. Remedied.

"What can I do for you, little prince?"

Little Prince. A loaded term for Loki, and Thanos knew it.

Loki's mind flashed him images of stealing the Gems, blasting Thanos with the Power Gem, deleting Thanos with the Reality Gem, changing himself to a stronger creature, crushing Thanos beneath his foot–

_No, no, stop, stop the thoughts, he will see_–

But Thanos was already laughing.

"You do not believe any of that, little prince, do you? That you could really do any of that to me? Your magic is a flutter. Using the Gems that way would break your body in an instant."

Loki realized he wasn't breathing, and inhaled. After a few breaths, he trusted himself to speak.

"I have the Power Gem for you," he said.

"I know," Thanos rumbled. He finally–finally–moved away from the window and toward his throne. Loki imagined he could feel the ground shake a bit with each of the Titan's steps, and had to grip his tunic again to keep his hands from trembling. The footsteps reminded him too much of his time as a resident of this ship. And now, they also reminded him too much of the steady footfalls of the guards outside Odin's chambers, marching up and down, every night, keeping Loki safe inside in the cage of his illusion, the illusion that he was in fact Odin, King of Asgard. Making Loki wonder each time they passed if, this time, those feet marched not to patrol past his door, but to take him away to the dungeon.

"Mmm, that does sound unpleasant," Thanos said, bringing Loki back to himself. He had gripped his tunic with such tight fists that his fingernails were biting into his palms through the fabric.

"Please do not do that," Loki answered.

"Yes, I forgot," Thanos said, seating himself upon the raised throne. "You hate that."

"I do."

"Give it to me," Thanos said. He held out his hand, fingers like blocks of stone, palm up. "Now. And you will have your five minutes with the Time Gem."

Loki reached through the fabric of his reality. Ever since he and Thanos had begun to work together, the Reality Gem had responded only to Loki, much to Thanos' displeasure. And one of the results was that it was easier than ever for Loki to create, maintain, and access pocket dimensions for storage purposes.

He extracted the Power Gem from one of these pockets. It glowed red like animal eyes in the dark as Loki crossed the few feet toward Thanos. This Gem more than any other gave Loki a bad feeling, but he could not say whether that had to do with the energy of the gem itself or with the war he had been forced to launch to obtain it.

The Titan's hand was cold as rock when Loki set the stone there. Thanos' fist closed around the gem, and he shut his eyes.

Loki retreated to a safe distance from the throne once more.

After a moment Thanos exhaled, and a new grin spread across his face. "My," he said. "This is a good one. My favorite yet." He laughed. "This one will make trouble."

Enough time passed with the Titan in that pose for Loki to wonder whether he wouldn't be left standing here in the cold room for another long stretch. But then Thanos opened his eyes.

"Good work," he said. Loki, in spite of himself, felt his shoulders relax measurably and a treacherous warmth start in his chest.

Thanos would read in Loki's mind that he liked the compliment, but Loki hid it anyway. "Fine, Thanos," he said. "Give me the Time Gem."

Thanos snapped the red gem into the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand—the false Gauntlet the dwarves had created was in Asgard, in the weapon's vault, keeping up appearances.

Then the Titan drew his arm away from his face and turned it this way and that, as if to admire it. Just one of the six settings was empty; the Soul Gem was still in the possession of someone Thanos referred to only as "The Channeler."

After a moment Thanos pried the orange one from where it was mounted on one knuckle. "You know, this one is tricky," he said. Then he looked up at Loki and went on: "Catch!"

The gem arced from Thanos' fist and began to fall toward the flagstone floor several feet from Loki.

With a flick of his wrist Loki swallowed the gem into a reality pocket and spit it back out into his open palm.

Thanos laughed. "Excellent," he said. "You know, if this really is goodbye, I want you to know: I do like you, little prince. I liked at first only your rage, but ever since I brought you back I have liked the whole of you very much. You've proved quite fixable."

Loki pressed his mouth shut to keep his retorts in, and gave his mind a moment to settle. "Thank you, Thanos," he managed finally. Thanos would have heard everything Loki thought about him. But that was part of Thanos' game: Loki must behave as Thanos would want him to behave, even though they both knew what was going on in Loki's head.

But it didn't matter now. The orange Time Gem lay heavy in Loki's palm. He had never held it before. Unlike the Reality Gem, which Thanos had allowed Loki to access from the beginning of their re-acquaintance simply because Loki could wield it well and Thanos could not, Thanos had kept Loki from the Time Gem.

Because all Loki wanted, the only thing he longed for in all the universe, was a second chance to succeed. "I certainly hope that this is goodbye," Loki replied. And he closed his eyes.

The gem in his hand opened up a landscape of magic in his mind unlike any he had seen before, just as each of the other gems he'd used had done. It wasn't quite as clear to Loki as when he held the Reality Gem, but he could make out patterns.

"Take me back," he told the gem, pushing as much magic as could into it. "Take me back to that moment in Asgard, just before I entered the dark path to Jotunheim to meet with Laufey for the first time. Take me back."

Loki waited.

Nothing happened. It was like stepping down a staircase in the dark and finding a step was missing.

The gem … Oh, god. The gem …

It could tell him the past, or a future. It could make him young today, or old. It could stop someone or something in the flow of time.

It could not take him back. That …

The Gem whispered to him: _That would take the full Gauntlet, all six gems. You ask too much._

Loki clutched the Gem more tightly. It would take the full Gauntlet. Just resurrection required the full Gauntlet. And just like fooling the magic binding Asgard's Old Ways to accept Loki as King and pass the Kingforce on to him, even though he was both unworthy in the King's eyes and in his heart unwilling, the two great prohibitions for a successor.

Just like rewriting one's own personality.

Just like every damned thing he had hoped the Gems could do for him.

What in the Nine were they good for?

Loki jerked his eyes open, his muscles tensed to fight–but there was no one and nothing to fight. Just Thanos sprawled on his throne, smiling placidly at Loki.

Smiling like he was unsurprised.

"You knew," Loki spat. "You knew it couldn't."

Thanos nodded. "I did know, little prince," he said delightedly. "You cannot change the past like that. You cannot get your second chance."

Clutching the Gem so hard reopened the tiny puncture wounds in Loki's palm, and slick blood leaked onto the Gem's smooth surface. He forced himself to open his hand, and looked down at the bloody stone.

It would take the Gauntlet. The full Gauntlet to … rewrite his history. To undo his battles lost. Thanos knew that. _And he'd led Loki on anyway. _

A plan formed all at once in a corner of Loki's mind, and before he even dared to put the thoughts into words he was acting. A flick of the wrist and the opening to a new pocket dimension emerged from reality nearby. The pocket was stronger and more durable than any Loki had created before; another flick of magic and –

Thanos had less than a half-second to register Loki's thoughts. Realization showed as horror on his face.

The Infinity Gauntlet fell to the floor with a clink as Loki closed the pocket dimension around the Titan.

Loki gasped, and felt his knees buckle beneath him.

Had he just ... Had he just imprisoned a Titan?

Panting and shaking on his knees, all his magic spent in one go, Loki listened for the sound of guard's footsteps coming to apprehend their leader's sudden and unexpected captor. But there was no sound in the high-ceilinged chamber but the echoes of his own ragged breaths. Perhaps Thanos had asked to be left alone with Loki.

Loki's sudden relief at having avoided whatever Thanos had planned for him after the Time Gem failed did a lot to calm the shaking in his limbs, which were exhausted by the huge expenditure of magic.

He could _feel _Thanos straining and railing against the walls of his new prison, and Loki knew it would only be a matter of time before he tore free.

But for now, Loki had five of the Infinity Gems, and needed only one more to have what he wanted.

_Omnipotence. Ultimate power._

The power to change the past, or to make a greater future.

Yes. Yes, he would make a greater future. He would … rule. He would fix everything, make everything right.

What did "omnipotence" mean, if not the power to make things exactly as he wished them, no matter how complex? Could one with omnipotence not give _everyone _what they wanted?

Loki crawled toward the Gauntlet and laced it onto his left wrist before clicking the bloodied Time Gem back into its setting. He would need to wait a little while for his strength to return, before using the Space Gem to portal home to Asgard; it took magic to use the Gems, at least for Loki. And if a creature of Yggdrasil pushed their magic use too far, it could do grievous damage to mind and body – it could even kill. And you didn't know, until that happened, that you had even gone too far.

Loki had done it before. A few times. It was best by far to avoid it.

So he listened again for signs of retaliation on the ship, and heard only the silence of the vast throne room; then he put a small invisibility glamour on himself, and waited for a bit of his magic to recharge. He had work to do. Work to do, and a plan forming in the back of his mind.

For the first time since he had died and been resurrected, Loki was in control.


End file.
